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While Frankensteining a junkyard dash and my old one I decided to fix some of the common problems the 850 interior has. I removed all of the better upholstered parts to the grey vinyl to black. All of the plastic is extremely fragile. (I also reinforced the typical mounts with metal rivetted and epoxied into place) Using parts of the junked dash I cut out side caps to cover the common de-laminated vinyl on the sides of the dash. once you peel the old vinyl off of theses caps you are left with a rough surface that can then be sanded and painted with SEM Landau Black to create an OEM looking piece for both sides. I added hex screws to complete the look but just attaching them with epoxy or 3M tape should be sufficient. If you leave a lip on the front edge of theses pieces they fit nicely between the dash and door weatherstripping.
The next issue is the top plastic portion of the dash that cracks from the sun or trying to remove the dash pad. Even the best dashboard I could find in the junkyard had some cracks, and even if you manage to find a perfect one its only a matter of time until it breaks. I created a template of this portion and a Rhino/CAD file for laser-cutting. I can upload the file if someone else wants to attempt to do this, but there is one curve I would probably tweak If I were to do this again. I was advised against making this part from PVC and chose lexan. It maintains all of the defrost holes, VIN and climate sensor windows, and even an R logo for posing. Again this was painted with SEM Landau Black and then attached to the dash with plastic weld epoxy. Make sure to glue every little portion! There were a couple small spots I missed and If I left the car out in the sun the lexan started to warp upwards in these spots. I snuck in some plastic weld after and it has been fine since, Its just much easier to do right the first time around.
The portion that flares up near the windshield was covered in an adhesive black weatherstripping from Home Depot.
The last part involves the shifter boot for an M56 swap. Initially I combined a leather MOMO Endurance boot with the stock boot hidden underneath it, but it never looked perfect and was coming undone. I then decided to go a different route and separated the rubber bellows out from the OEM manual boot and cut out a black PVC sheet to hold the bellows down. The plastic "clip" thing originally between the volvo boot and knob was separated and reinstalled on the shifter rod under the rubber bellows to hold it in place up top. After conditioning the rubber it cleaned up nicely and looks pretty stock. For the knob I used a MOMO automatico and removed the button and replaced it with a shaved down shift pattern from a M56 Volvo knob. Combined with some heavy washers under the pattern cap and Momo's black endurance adapter, It makes a very nice weighted shift knob.
This was version 1.0:
(You can see the black dash panels here)
Sorry for the awful pictures, and will try to post better ones when I get a chance.